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ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION NOTIFICATION
REGULATIONS FOR ENTRY AND OPERATION OF FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES/ INSTITUTIONS IMPARTING TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

New Delhi, the 16th May, 2005

No. F. 37-3/Legal/2005:- In supersession of the Regulations Notified by the Council vide Notification No. F.37-3/Legal (vi) 2003, dated 3rd April 2003 and in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 23 read with Clause (b), Clause (f), Clause (g) and Clause (n), (o), (p) of Section 10 of the AICTE Act, 1987, (Act 52 of 1987), the Council hereby makes these regulations for regulating entry and operation of Foreign Universities/ Institutions imparting technical education in India.

Objectives:

1. To facilitate collaboration and partnerships between Indian and Foreign Universities / Institutions in the field of technical education, research and training.
2. To systematize the operation of Foreign Universities/Institutions already providing training and other educational services including that of coaching of students, in India leading to award of degree and diploma in technical education, either on their own or in collaboration with an Indian educational institution, under any mode of delivery system such as conventional/ formal, non-formal and distance mode.
3. To safeguard the interest of students' community in India and ensure uniform maintenance of Norms and Standards as prescribed by various Statutory Bodies;
4. To enforce accountability for all such educational activities by Foreign Universities / Institutions in India;
5. To safeguard against entry of non-accredited Universities / Institutions in the Country of origin to impart technical education in India.
6. To safeguard the nation’s interest and take punitive measures, wherever necessary, against the erring institutions, on case-to-case basis.

Short Title and Commencement :

These Regulations may be called the AICTE Regulations for Entry and Operation of Foreign Universities in India imparting technical education, 2005.
These Regulations shall come in force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Applicability :

These Regulations shall cover and apply to:

Foreign Universities / Institutions interested in imparting technical education in India leading to award of diplomas and degrees including post graduate and doctoral programmes.
Indian University / Institution which is already in existence and is duly approved by AICTE, interested in imparting technical education leading to award of diplomas / degrees including post graduate and doctoral programmes of a Foreign University through collaborative/ twining arrangements.

The existing collaborative agreements/ arrangements with Foreign Universities/ Institutions offering technical education in India. Any other educational activity carried out in India, in any manner, by the Foreign Universities/ Institutions, as may be decided by the Council to bring such activities under these Regulations.

On commencement of these Regulations no Foreign University/ Institution shall establish /operate its educational activity in India leading to award of diplomas/ degrees including post graduate and doctoral without the expressed permission /approval of the Council.

Definitions :

Unless the context otherwise requires :

AICTE means the All India Council for Technical Education established under Section 3 of the AICTE Act (52 of 1987) by the Parliament for co-ordinated development of technical education in the Country.
NBA means the National Board of Accreditation, authorized body under AICTE Act to accredit programmes of technical education imparted by Universities / Institutions in India and recommend recognition/de-recognition of institution or the programme.
All other words and expressions used herein and not defined above but defined in the AICTE Act shall have the meaning as assigned to it in AICTE Act (52 of 1987).

Procedure for Registration :

Any application to AICTE by a Foreign University / Institution seeking to operate in India either directly or through collaborative arrangement with an Indian University / Institution must be accompanied by a No-Objection Certificate issued by the concerned Embassy in India. The Missions of the concerned Countries shall be required to certify genuineness of the educational institutions of their respective countries willing to offer study programmes in India.

The concerned Foreign University / Institution shall submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to AICTE along with application in a prescribed form, giving details regarding infrastructure facilities, facilities available for instruction, faculty, prescribed fee, courses, curricula, requisite funds for operation for a minimum period of three years and other terms and conditions of collaboration, if any, along with following:

A No-Objection Certificate issued by the concerned Embassy in India certifying genuineness of the Foreign University/ Institution in the Country of its origin.
A copy of certificate indicating that the applicant Foreign University/institution has been setup/established in the Country of its origin and is approved and accredited by the Government or an agency authorized by the Government of the Country of its origin.
A copy of certificate of registration of the Society/Trust/the Indian Educational Institution under Societies Registration Act and any other similar Act.
A Detailed Project Report (DPR) in the prescribed format, giving details regarding availability of infrastructure facilities, faculty, fee to be charged from students, admission procedure, course curricula, mode of delivery availability of requisite funds for operation for a minimum period of three years, terms and conditions of collaboration between the Foreign University/Institution and the Indian Educational Institution etc.
A Demand Draft for Rs. 5000/- drawn on a Nationalised bank in favour of "The Member Secretary, AICTE", payable at New Delhi.

AICTE shall after receiving the application along with DPR, acknowledge the receipt of the application. The proposal shall then be processed internally and any deficiency shall be communicated and additional documents, if any required, shall be asked for.

Once the AICTE is convinced that the proposal is complete in all respects, a Standing Committee nominated by the Council comprising three Advisors heading the Bureaus of the Council shall consider the proposal and invite presentation, if warranted.

On the recommendations of the Standing Committee, an Expert Committee shall be nominated to visit the institution and assess the compliance of minimum Norms and Standards in respect of infrastructural and instructional facilities to start programmes of technical education and training.

The applicant Foreign Universities/Institutions, whose applications are found to be in order in all respects shall be advised to submit the following for further processing:-

A Demand Draft for Rs. 50000/- drawn on a Nationalized bank in favour of "The Member Secretary, AICTE", payable at New Delhi towards inspection fees.
The Foreign University/Institution shall submit a Refundable Performance Guarantee Fee (RPGF) in the form of a Demand Draft in favour of "The Member Secretary, AICTE" payable at New Delhi for an amount as may be specified from time to time.

The Refundable Performance Guarantee Fee (RPGF) shall be refunded to the concerned Institution after a specified period but could be carried forward in case of any violation of Norms, conditions, and requirements and/or non-performance by the institution and/or complaints against the institution. The Refundable Performance Guarantee Fee (RPGF) shall be kept in the form of FDR. Yearly interest accrued thereon shall be released to the Institution for scholarships/grants to students as per Council’s Guidelines.

Based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee, the EC Sub-Committee comprising of the Chairman, Vice Chairman, the Secretary Education (S&HE), Government of India and the Member Secretary (AICTE) would take a decision to issue a Certificate of Registration or otherwise, after considering various factors including the quality of education, overall merit of the proposal, credibility of the Foreign University as well as its Indian Partner intending to start the programmes, fees to be charged, etc.

The Registration so granted shall be valid for a specified period during which AICTE may review the progress made and periodically inform the concerned agencies about the results of such a review. After expiry of the said period, the AICTE may extend the registration or withdraw the registration or impose such other conditions for extension, as it may consider appropriate. In the event of malpractices, Registration could be revoked any time.

During the period of operation the Institution shall be treated on par with other technical institutions in India and shall be governed by all the Rules, Regulations, Norms and Guidelines of AICTE issued from time to time.

Conditions for Registration :

1. Proposal from the Foreign Universities/ Institutions shall be considered under these Regulations provided that they themselves establish operation in India or through collaborative arrangements with either an Indian Institution created through Society/ Trust Act or the relevant Act in India. Only such institutions shall be eligible to enter into collaboration/ partnership/twinning arrangements etc. with Foreign Universities/Institutions as are already in existence and are duly approved by the AICTE. De-novo institutions shall not be eligible. No franchisee system shall be allowed under these Regulations.

2. Accreditation by the authorized agency in parent Country with higher grades where grading is available, shall be the pre-requisite condition for any Foreign University / Institution to start its operation for imparting technical education in India.

3. The Foreign University/ Institution shall furnish an undertaking declaring therein that the degrees/ diplomas awarded to the students in India shall be recognized in the parent Country and shall be treated equivalent to the corresponding degrees/ diplomas awarded by the University/ Institution at home.

4. The educational programmes to be conducted in India by Foreign Universities / Institutions leading to award of degrees, diplomas, shall have the same nomenclature as it exists in their parent Country. There shall not be any distinction in the academic curriculum, mode of delivery, pattern of examination etc. and such degrees and diplomas must be fully recognized in their parent Country.

5. All such Foreign Universities / Institutions which are registered in India for imparting technical education leading to award of degrees and diplomas shall have recognition at par with equivalent Indian degrees, subject to the fulfillment of criteria laid down at Clause 6 below.

6. The proposal from Foreign University seeking equivalence of technical courses/ programmes at degree, diploma or post graduate level for mutual recognition of qualifications for the purpose of imparting such courses in India under collaborative arrangements or otherwise shall be considered by AICTE through its Standing Committee on Equivalence comprising of representatives from UGC, AIU and AICTE or such other mechanism as may be decided. In case such equivalence has already been established by AIU or any recognized Government body, the same may be accepted by AICTE for the purpose provided those are not in dispute.

7. It shall be the responsibility of the concerned Foreign University/ Institution to provide for and ensure that all facilities are available, the academic requirements are laid down and announced prior to starting of the programmes.
8. Any course / programme which jeopardizes the national interest of the Country shall not be allowed to be offered in India.

9. The fee to be charged and the intake in each course to be offered by a Foreign University/ Institution leading to a degree or diploma shall be as prescribed by the AICTE, giving due hearing to the concerned Foreign University/Institution.

10. Educational innovations including experimentation with different modes of delivery by a Foreign University / Institution shall only be allowed provided such a system is well established either in their parent Country or in India.

11. The Foreign University / Institution shall have to declare in advance the detailed guidelines for admission, entry level qualifications, fees of all kinds, the examination and evaluation and there shall not be major deviations with the prescribed procedures in their parent Country, vis-à-vis India.

12. It shall be the responsibility of the concerned Foreign University / Institution offering programmes in India to get their AICTE approved centres, accredited by NBA soon after two batches have passed out from such centres. The study centres/ institutions of collaborating private educational service providers which impart technical education leading to the award of a degree / diploma of a Foreign University shall be considered as a center of the Foreign University / Institution, even though the management may be provided by the Indian educational institution.

13. The Foreign University / Institution shall be bound by the advice of AICTE with regard to admissions, entry qualifications and the conduct of courses / programmes in technical education, as may be communicated to them from time to time.

14. For any dispute arising out of implementation of these regulations, arbitration authority shall be the Secretary, Department of Education in the Central Government of India and the legal jurisdiction shall be the Civil Courts of New Delhi only.

15. AICTE may prescribe any other condition for registration, if it is expedient to do so in the overall interest of the technical education system in the Country.

16. The Foreign Universities / Institutions already operating in India in various forms shall have to seek fresh approval from AICTE within six months from the date of issuance of this notification or before commencement of ensuing academic session, whichever is earlier and shall be governed by the Regulations and Guidelines of AICTE.

Punitive Measures and Conditions for Withdrawal :

If a Foreign University / Institution fails to comply with any of the conditions as contained in the above regulations and/or consistently refrains from taking corrective actions contrary to the advice of the AICTE, the AICTE may after giving reasonable opportunity to the concerned University/Institution through hearing or after making such inquiry as the Council may consider necessary, withdraw the registration granted to such University / Institution to offer their degrees, diplomas in India and forbid such Foreign University / Institution to either open Centres or enter into any collaborative arrangement with any University / Institution in India.

The AICTE shall also inform the concerned agencies including Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, RBI of such decisions and advise these agencies to take any or all of the following measures:

Refusal / withdrawal for grant of visa to employees/teachers of the said Foreign University / Institution.
Stop repatriation of funds from India to home Country.
Informing the public about the withdrawal of the Registration of such Foreign University/Institution and the consequences thereof .

3. In case it comes to the notice of the Council, that a Foreign University is running diploma or/and degree at undergraduate, postgraduate and research level in technical education in India directly or in collaboration with an Indian partner without obtaining a certificate of registration, Council shall take immediate steps to initiate action under the Indian Penal Code for Criminal breach of trust, misconduct, fraud & cheating and under other relevant Indian Laws.

Withdrawal :Once the registration of a Foreign University/Institution is withdrawn, the Council shall make attempts in co-ordination with concerned State Govt. to re-allocate the students enrolled into such programmes to other approved institutions of the Council. The Foreign University/ Institution in such cases, shall have to return the entire fee collected from such students to the allottee institutions in which such students are accommodated. Such Foreign Institutions shall not be allowed to open any other Centre/Institution or enter into a collaborative arrangement in India.

Annual Reports : The Foreign University / Institution shall submit an annual report giving details of the number of students admitted, programmes conducted, total fee collected, amount transferred to parent Country, investment made, number of students awarded degree, diploma and any such information that AICTE may ask for.

Inspection; AICTE may cause an inspection, whenever necessary, with or without prior notice, to assess the infrastructural and other facilities available and/or to verify the compliance of conditions, norms, standards etc. prescribed by the AICTE from time to time.

Interpretation : If any question arises as to the interpretation of these Regulations the same shall be decided by the AICTE.

The AICTE shall have power to issue any clarifications to remove any doubt, which may arise in regard to implementation of these Regulations.

The Regulations shall be subject to suitable review in the light of the recommendations of the C.N.R. Rao Committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on this subject.



(Anuradha Gupta, IAS)
Member Secretary